5 Champagne Cocktails - The best way to add spirits to your sparklers

If you're in the some-things-are-best-left-alone camp, we get it. You don't exactly have to be a wacky, die-hard fundamentalist to feel that Champagne cocktails are unnecessary; given a lovely flute filled with even the most straightforward sparkling wine, it's easy to make the argument. But here's one of the glorious things about a bottle of Champagne: You don't have to choose. Start out sipping it straight, and then break out those mixers and gild that lily.

Once you've mastered the Bellini, the French 75, and the Death in the Afternoon, spare some bubbles for the sparkling mojito and these other Champagne concoctions.

Chandon Pom Fizz

1/2 oz Grand Marnier Liqueur
1/2 oz Pomegranate juice
2 to 3 oz Chilled sparkling wine
Strip of orange peel

Pour the Grand Marnier and pomegranate juice into a sparkling wine flute. Fill the glass to the top with the sparkling wine. Twist the orange peel over, drop it in the glass, and serve at once.

Black Velvet

1 part Guinness stout
1 part Brut Champagne

Fill an empty Collins glass part-way with a Guinness (or other stout beer), top with Champagne. Stir.

Air Mail

2 oz Amber rum
1/2 oz Fresh Lime juice
1 teaspoon honey
5 oz Champagne

Combine the rum, lime juice, and honey in an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir, the pour into a collins glass. Add Champagne.

Champagne Mojito

3 oz Brut Champagne
4 Sprigs fresh spearmint
3 tsp Superfine sugar
2 tbsp Fresh lime juice
1 lime wedge

In a bar mixing glass, muddle the mint with the lime juice and sugar. Add Champagne, stir, and strain into a Champagne flute.



Champagne Cocktail
Ingredients:

1 Sugar cube

3 Dashes Angostura bitters

Brut Champagne

Twist of lemon
Preparation:

Drop the sugar cube in a Champagne flute, and moisten it with 3 dashes of Angostura bitters. Top with Brut Champagne, squeeze a lemon twist and drip it into the drink.